


Emotional Damage

by Higuchimon



Category: Power Rangers Zeo
Genre: Chapter Set Boot Camp, Diversity Writing Challenge, F/M, Novella Masterclass Challenge, Small Multichap Competition
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-20 11:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14260167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higuchimon/pseuds/Higuchimon
Summary: Rita Repulsa decides it's long past time to get revenge on the two people who used to serve her then turned on her. And what better way to ruin Kat and Tommy than by shattering their happiness with their own regrets?  [hiatus:  see profile for details]





	1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Emotional Damage  
 **Main Characters:** Kat, Tommy, Rita Repulsa|| **Romance:** Kat x Tommy  
 **Word Count:** 4,829/32,000|| **Chapter Count:** 1/8  
 **Genre:** Romance, Drama|| **Rated:** G  
 **Challenge:** Diversity Writing, J24, fic set during canon; Small Multichap Competition; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #8, 8 chapters; Novella Masterclass, #1, Canon Goodness.  
 **Notes:** This takes place after **Good As Gold** and before anything Turbo related.  
 **Summary:** Rita Repulsa decides it's long past time to get revenge on the two people who used to serve her then turned on her. And what better way to ruin Kat and Tommy than by shattering their happiness with their own regrets?

* * *

Rita Repulsa hated everything, no exceptions. She hated her husband, no matter that she’d grown used to his grill. She hated her brother, for a long list of reasons that started with being stupider than a grain of sand and ended with his lack of comprehension of the uses of deodorant. She did admit he gave mostly decent gifts, if only by dumb luck. 

Zedd and Rito were only the start of her hate list, which encompassed the entire known universe and then some. Rita hated anything she didn’t know existed on general principles and also hated several things that didn’t exist, for the sake of being complete. 

At the top of the list, reserved for most hated beings in all the universe, stood Tommy Oliver and Kat Hillard. She, of course, hated all Power Rangers, past, present, and future, but those two held the top spots by virtue of once having worked for her. She’d _tried_ being philosophical about it, and most days she didn’t waste her time with anything more than a generalized hatred of them. 

Today was different. Today she stared at Earth through her RepulsaScope and imagined them both submitted to the most horrific tortures she knew of. Thumbscrews. Boiling oil. Frozen forever in the heart of the hottest star she knew of, burning endlessly. Seeing Earth ground under her heels. Spending all day every day locked up in the Winnebago with Rito. 

That was a good one. She’d have to remember it. 

“What are you looking at, my dear?” Zedd shouldn’t have been able to come up behind her without her realizing it, but he did anyway. She reminded herself to pay better attention, even if fantasizing about torturing her two former minions occupied her so much. 

She waved one hand toward the sky where Earth floated so annoyingly unconquered. “Did you know Kat and Tommy are dating?” 

After the last couple of years of being married to him and seeing all of his expressions up close, Rita knew how to read them to some degree. From the look she could see now, he not only didn’t know, but hadn’t cared. 

“I suppose they would. It’s a human sort of thing to do,” he said after a moment of silence. Rita glared before she turned back to the scope, almost not listening to his next words. “What does it matter? Is it anything we can use?” 

“I don’t know.” It probably didn’t really matter _that_ much. It wasn’t as if it should. But the sight of them strolling side by side, hand in hand, those stupid goofy smiles on their pretty pure faces, doing it because they _liked_ each other and not to gain a bit of power or prestige… _that_ was what set her rage aflame. “But if there is, I’ll find it!” 

“I’m sure you will.” Zedd patted her shoulder, obviously not caring one bit if her former slaves fell in love, fell in hate, or fell off the edge of a cliff. Well, she guessed he might care about that last, if only because they were Rangers and that could be interesting to watch. “Though I thought Tommy only had eyes for Kimberly.” 

Rita shrugged; she hadn’t caught up on all of the Earth gossip she’d missed yet. Other matters, such as getting rid of the Machine Empire, took precedence. “I guess they broke up or something.” Though, now that she thought about it, it was curious. She knew quite well that Kim and Tommy had been drawn to each other since Tommy’s first day in Angel Grove. She’d had to make certain that didn’t interfere with her plans for him, and had taken pains to suppress his attraction to the then-Pink Ranger. But from the moment that those two became a couple, neither of them had so much as looked at anyone else. 

_I need to know what happened,_ she decided suddenly. She didn’t know _if_ it would be useful, whatever it was, but she wouldn’t know if she didn’t know what it was. “Finster!” 

Rita didn’t like having Zedd pop up behind her without warning, but she fully expected Finster to emerge from thin air, or whatever the moon had, the moment she called for him. That was part of his job. True to form, he shuffled up within seconds. 

“Yes, my queen? What can I do for you today?” 

Rita shot one more look at Earth, then turned to her most loyal servant. Loyal, useful, and actually competent, in fact. Sure, none of his monsters had ever given the Rangers more than two days worth of trouble, if that, but at least he tried and wasn’t the sort of bumbling idiot that other people on her payroll were. 

“Finster, we were out of touch with the Ranger gossip for months. I want to know what they’ve been doing. Especially Kat, Tommy, and Kimberly.” It didn’t matter that Kim wasn’t a Ranger anymore. She was still tied enough into them for Rita to want to know. “Oh, and I don’t want them finding out that you’re finding out about this.” 

Finster bowed low at once. “Of course. Perhaps a truth potion would be useful? Drop it into a Ranger’s glass and they’ll tell anything that they know.” 

“No!” Rita smacked him upside one furry ear. “Idiot! I said I don’t want them knowing about it!” She considered revising her opinion about how competent Finster could be. “Don’t you have any better ideas?” She’d take one from anyone right now, as long as it worked. 

“Hey, sis!” Well, almost anyone. “Whatcha talking about, hm?” 

“Go away, Rito.” Zedd growled, which earned him a glare from Rita. No one insulted Rito but her! “This is evil leadership work. We want to know why Tommy isn’t all hung up over his pretty pink Kimberly anymore.” 

Rito rubbed his skull and shrugged. “I think she sent him a breakup letter. I think what’s his name, Skull, was going on about it when it happened. Something about how whoever it was better treat her right and stuff. I got bored.” 

That failed to surprise Rita, who knew full well that her brother’s attention span was inversely proportional to his stench. Unless it came to fighting, of course. But what he said caught her interest all the same. 

“Goldar!” She did want more confirmation on this before accepting it as the truth, though. It _did_ come from Rito. As soon as the golden gorilla lumbered up, she put the question to him. “Did Kimberly break up with Tommy in a letter?” 

“Sure she did. Bulk and Skull …well, Skull…he was all torn up about it.” Goldar shrugged. “What does it matter?” 

“Maybe a little. Maybe a lot.” Rita turned away from all of them, gears in her head turning rapidly. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that she _could_ use this to her advantage somehow. She hadn’t yet figured out the fine details, but the seed was planted and she had plenty of evil fertilizer to make sure it grew a fruit of delightful wickedness. 

* * *

Angel Grove Park was a good place for a young couple to take a walk in. It was big enough that even after all of his years in Angel Grove, Tommy still found new paths and sections he’d never known existed before. 

He and Kat strolled down one of those new paths now. They weren’t holding hands, but puffs of a warm breeze brought the scent of her perfume to her, and he had only to turn his head to catch a glimpse of wisps of her blonde hair. He probably looked more than strictly necessary, but he didn’t think anyone would call him out on it. 

“It’s a beautiful day,” Kat murmured and he smiled. 

“Yeah. Hey, you want a drink? I think we’re almost at the center.” Not the Youth Center, but the center of the park itself, where stands offering cool drinks, snacks, and the occasional toy stood scattered here and there. They weren’t quite as good as Ernie’s smoothies, but they helped to beat the heat. 

“Sure.” He liked that small, almost shy smile on her lips. “That sounds great.” 

Just as he’d thought, the path led out to the center in less than a minute. He headed over to the nearest fruit juice stand, returning with two juices in a matter of moments. 

“That was quick.” Kat sipped hers slowly, savoring the flavor, blue eyes flicking over to him as she did so. “I just hope nothing happens to spoil the rest of the day.” 

“You and me both.” Tommy shuddered; today hadn’t yet shown a single trace of any sort of evil. Ever since that whole mess with Jason and Trey ended, there’d been a kind of uneasy silence hovering over Angel Grove. Tommy didn’t yet want to call it ‘peace’, since he knew Rita and Zedd still lived up on the moon. They’d do something, sooner or later. Or someone would. Evil just didn’t give up and go home. Very few people knew that better than he did. 

Kat glanced up to where the pale crescent of the moon could be seen in the afternoon sky. “What do you think they’re up to up there? Zordon and Alpha said they detected some kind of explosions, and the Machine Empire’s been quiet since then.” 

“I know, and that worries me.” Tommy didn’t fidget, but he gave a look to the sky as well. “Whatever it is, we’re going to have to all be on our guards.” 

Kat took another sip of her juice, gaze distant for a few moments. “Did you ever wonder what it might have been like if we’d been left alone?” She kept her voice low as well, not wanting anyone to overhear her. “If Rita picked other people?” 

Tommy blinked once or twice. “I hadn’t really thought about it.” He wasn’t sure if he should have. It _had_ happened and thus he had to deal with it. “Why?” 

“Just something that crossed my mind.” Kat gave him a small, sweet smile. “We’re kind of here now because of that. So if it weren’t for what happened…” 

He could see what she meant. If he’d never been the evil Green Ranger, he wasn’t at all sure of who he’d be right now. If that hadn’t happened, he couldn’t be sure he would’ve really made friends with any of the others. The secret would’ve kept them apart. _They would’ve tried?_ He was sure of that much. Jason would’ve still wanted to spar and Kim…Kim would’ve still liked him. 

Tommy decided dwelling on that wasn’t something he was ready for just yet. They would’ve tried, but tried didn’t mean succeeding, not in this case. 

“So I guess a lot of good did come from that.” He smiled back at her, on steadier ground now. “I bet she didn’t think about that.” 

Kat laughed and shook her head. “I doubt it. I bet she’d hate the thought.” 

Guided by some inner instinct, both tensed and kept an eye out around them. Rita and Zedd, as well as the Machine Empire, watched them all the time. Quiet there might have been for now, but it would break at any moment, and times like this were tailor-made for some ridiculous Rita reaction. 

When nothing happened, both of them eased up a fraction, light, silly grins breaking across their lips. “Guess we’re still a little sensitive?” Kat offered and Tommy agreed. “It really has been quiet. I have to wonder what’s going on up there.” 

That was all it took. An explosion of feathers, Rito, and Goldar sent a few of the other park-goers sprawling and most of the rest fled in fear for their lives. Angel Grove citizens were very used to this kind of thing. Most of them never gave it a second glance anymore, just taking the chance to flee as fast as possible. 

Kat and Tommy stood in battle stances before the last feathers of the Tengas hit the ground. They couldn’t morph in public, but he thought they wouldn’t need to. 

“What you guys doing here?” Tommy snapped, his attention firmly on their adversaries. “I didn’t think walks in the park were really your style, Goldar.” 

Goldar’s only answer was a swing of his heavy-bladed sword toward Tommy, who ducked out of the way with the ease that came from having done so far too many times to count. Kat dodged a few of the Tengas as they surged toward her, Rito going to back up Goldar. Kat sort of wished she could sit this fight out and watch Tommy handle the two idiots, but that wasn’t in the cards today. 

“Get her! Get her!” Kat wasn’t too worried about what the Tengas babbled; it was the same standard Tenga comments she’d heard many times before. They were smarter than the Putties she knew Rita and Zedd had once used, but that wasn’t saying much. She was reasonably certain her laundry basket was smarter than a Putty. At any rate, she kept herself busy moving out of the way when she could, blocking them when she couldn’t, and hitting back when not doing either of those. She knew she wasn’t the martial artist that Tommy, Jason, Rocky, or Adam were, but they all kept in shape for times like this. 

Tommy, for his part, thoroughly enjoyed this impromptu workout. It was too easy to dodge, roll, leap, and kick in a way that tended to have them hit each other more times than it didn’t. For two against one, it was the best chance he had to even the match up. 

“Hey!” At the clear shout, everyone looked up to see Adam, Rocky, and Tanya hurrying toward them, all three looking more than ready to take any available Tengas, plus Rito and Goldar. 

“We’ll finish this another day!” Goldar declared, golden fire wrapping around him. “Count on it!” He, Rito, and the Tengas all vanished a heartbeat later. 

Tommy turned to Kat as soon as he was certain they’d left. “Are you all right?” 

“Yeah, but what was all of that about?” Kat glanced from one of them to the other, worry written all over her face. “They didn’t seem like they really wanted anything, did they?” 

Rocky shook his head, as worried as she was. “They’re up to something. We just don’t know what yet.” 

“We’ll probably found out soon enough. They generally don’t wait all that long.” Adam looked around as well. “We should probably stick together for now, at least until we figure out the problems going to be.” 

Tommy nodded, biting back a mental sigh. It looked like the quiet was over with. 

* * *

Rita paced back and forth, difficult as that was in her heavy skirt. She hated wearing it, but the witches of her tradition hadn’t changed the style in eons. Not that she cared what those old hags thought, but she hated being out of fashion even worse. 

“What’s taking so long? How hard could this be?” Then again, the mission _was_ mostly in Rito and Goldar’s paws. Those two would screw up boiling water. 

“Yo, sis!” No sooner had she thought that then Rito appeared before her. “Praise me and worship me! We did it!” 

She whirled, a demonic grin of glee stretching her lips. “Really? You didn’t foul it up?” 

“Oh, come on! How often do I mess things up?” 

“Would you like the list in alphabetical order or from birth onwards?” Rita muttered, though it didn’t have quite the venom it might have if it turned out they really had screwed up what she wanted. 

“My dear sister!” Rito sounded silly enough as it was, but when he tried to sound important, he was even worse. At her impatient gesture, he flicked one bony wrist to reveal two empty plastic cups. “Here you go! Two former Power Ranger cups. Or I guess they’re current Ranger cups. At any rate, cups they used.” 

Rita refused to snatch at them, for all of three seconds. They weren’t _ideal_ foci for what she had in mind, but they would do. Ideal would be clothes they wore or hairs from their head. _And if we hadn’t had to leave the palace so fast, I’d have them. Something else to hate those machines for._ As if she didn’t already have a long enough list. 

But these would do. She frowned, glaring around her. “Finster!? Why isn’t he back yet? He had the easy job!” If she had to wait _too_ long, the traces on the cups would fade away and she’d have to try something else. Not to mention that the longer she had to wait, the likelier it was that Zordon would figure out what she had in mind. Then _all_ of her fun would be ruined! 

“Here I am!” Finster popped up and held out his hands palm up. “And here’s what you sent me for!” 

Several strands of dark brown hair lay across his hands and Rita snatched those up as well. This she needed even more than the cups. “Great! Now all of you get out of here. I need absolute quiet to do this!” 

She really didn’t, but she wanted it anyway, and she thought better without all of them cluttered up around her. It was good to have them there to praise her, but right now, she wanted less praise and more success. 

Once she was alone, Rita stalked inside the Winnebago and to the ritual room she’d set up there. It wasn’t as expansive as the one in the palace, but it served her purposes. She draped the hairs across her worktable and pointed her wand at them. This was the foundation of what she wanted to know. Hearing anything from Rito and Goldar, especially something they’d heard while without their memories, meant double and triple checking. She didn’t think they were bright enough to lie, but they were too dumb to get things right. Besides, she liked getting her news straight from the Rangers’ mouths, so to speak. 

Dark blue light poured from the tip of her wand to envelop the hairs as Rita chanted in a language so old that even Zordon might not have recognized it. As she did, images filled her mind. First, the confused ones of any young child, so she kept on chanting, forcing the spell to show her other things, images of the life of Kimberly Ann Hart. A simple human life it had been, until the day Rita arrived. 

More images spun through Rita’s mind, faster and faster, and Rita paused on one of them, surprised to herself, in a sense. Kimberly, wearing a gown almost identical to her own. A shift in the chant told her more, and she reminded herself to clout Zedd over the head. Wanting that little nitwit as his queen? The nerve! 

She returned to scanning the memories, skipping most of them until after Kim retired as a Ranger and left Angel Grove. Now Rita took her time, slowly reviewing it all, extracting all that she could of the last six months. She saw the young man who’d won Kim’s heart, saw her choice to break up with Tommy, and her fear that she couldn’t do it in person. 

Rita smirked. Humans were _so_ weak. But she still watched. So much to learn, and never enough time. 

* * *

“I’m telling you, I ordered a pizza for dinner, and it’s going to get here soon! And you should pay for it, Ed!” Rita declared before he rubbed the back of his skull. “Because I don’t have any money.” 

Zedd didn’t have a throne to slouch in, but he made do with one of the lawn chairs that he’d never asked Finster where he’d found it at. As always, whenever Rito said something that rode high on his scale of stupidity, he contemplated creating a dog monster and testing it out on Rito. So many questions filled his mind, ranging from “Why did you order something you can’t pay for?” to “Do you know how to think and just don’t bother or are you _really_ that stupid?” 

He never would ask any of them, though. He didn’t want to get any answers. 

“What is Rita doing in there?” He shot an annoyed look at the Winnebago. Rita spent hours crafting a spell to build her workroom in there, and he presumed that was where she was now, but she hadn’t uttered a single word about what she was doing now, or why. All she’d said was that it would bring down the Rangers. Zedd was more than a little in favor of that, but he still wanted to know what in the name of evil his wife was up to. 

“Hey, did you guys order the pizza?” A teenager of some species that vaguely resembled a cross between an alligator and a warthog stood a short distance away on top of a motorcycle modified for space travel, one hand on a pizza box. “I gotta charge extra for delivery to this solar system, you know. Bad neighborhood.” 

Zedd turned toward the delivery boy. He didn’t care about the pizza, but certain insults weren’t to be taken lightly. “And what’s wrong with this neighborhood?” Conquered or not, Earth was his! That made it the _best_ neighborhood! 

“It’s Rita, Zedd, and the Machine Empire. They all bring it down. Anything the UAE’s into just drops in property value.” The kid shrugged. “So, who’s paying for this?” 

Zedd gripped his staff and rose to his full height, brain pulsing, eyes glowing. “I am Lord Zedd!” 

Thirty seconds later, Rito groaned. “Aww, anchovies! I hate anchovies! Who ordered them anyway?” 

“Who cares, it’s free, isn’t it?” Goldar threw away the ones on his slice and gnawed on the rest of it. Zedd paid no attention, being too busy rendering the motorcycle down to its component parts, just as he’d done for the delivery boy. 

Bad neighborhood indeed. 

“Zedd!” Almost at the exact moment he finished, Rita’s screen echoed from the Winnebago. “Come here! I’ve got the best plan ever!” 

“Is it better than re-establishing our reputation as the terrors of every galaxy?” It would have to be a very impressive plan if it was. He stepped inside to see what she had in mind. 

He was impressed. 

* * *

Kat relaxed; Ernie’s chairs were always far more comfortable than any other chair she’d encountered that wasn’t actually upholstered and cushioned. They were perfect for relaxing in after an encounter with Tengas or Cogs, which was what she was doing right now. 

“They just showed up while we were talking and attacked. That’s it.” Tommy and the others were still dissecting the battle, such as it was. It worried her, too, though she couldn’t say why. Something in her deepest gut told her this was more than a casual strike at them. 

“I asked Zordon, but no one is doing anything anywhere. Nothing they could turn on us, anyway,” Adam reported. “Whatever they’re up to, they’re keeping it quiet for now.” 

All that meant was that when it happened, it would be more of a surprise than usual. They’d handled surprises before. The question was just how big of a surprise it would be and how long it would take them to handle it. 

Kat glanced at her watch, then the clock on the wall, just to double-check. “I’ve got to go! It’s almost dark and I don’t want to be late.” 

Tommy stood up just as soon as she did. “I’ll walk you home.” That was just like him, a true knight to the very end. She smiled. 

“Thank you.” With a quick good-bye to the others, even as they got ready to leave, the two of them headed out the door. Kat stopped to glance at Tommy’s truck, parked just outside. “Are you going to leave it here?” 

He shook his head. “I’ll come back for it after I get you home.” She lived in walking distance of Ernie’s; he didn’t. She nodded and turned her steps toward home. It was a little darker than she’d thought it would be; evening’s velvet blue cloak already spread over the city. “It’s beautiful here, too.” She thought of their earlier walk and how much she’d enjoyed time in the park. “Angel Grove must have a monopoly on beautiful scenery.” 

Tommy grinned, the glow from a streetlight they passed reflecting in his eyes for a moment. “I don’t know, I think Australia has some good views too.” 

She could feel her cheeks burning at that and stared straight ahead. “When have you ever been to Australia?” She half-expected a comment about how the compliment had just come to him. What he did say surprised her. 

“About three months before you came here. We all went there for a school trip.” He made a brief annoyed face. “That was when Rita came back and she and Zedd got married. _That_ was not a fun vacation for a while, I can tell you.” 

She tilted her head, thrilled to find out Tommy and the others hit up her home turf. “So, tell me about it. Where did you go? What did you see there?” She wished she could’ve met them there. It would’ve been fantastic to show them all the little nooks and crannies that visitors frequently missed by being caught up in all the huge impressive sights. From the list of what they’d seen, she could’ve shown them so much more. 

“Maybe we can all go together one of these days.” Tommy suggested once he’d finished. “I’d love to see it without Rita and Zedd getting in the way.” 

“Aww, Tommy! So sorry that you feel that way!” Rita’s cackle split through the night air and both Rangers readied for a fight, looking around for her. What came instead was a glistening sphere of light, rising around them in a half-shell arc. 

“What is this?” Kat reached out to touch it with her fingertips and jumped back as it sparked at her. “Whoa!” 

Rita laughed again as she stepped out of the shadows in front of them. “You won’t be getting out of that any time soon, kitty cat!” She sneered at both of them, triumph gleaming in the back of her cruel eyes. “And this is just the beginning of what I’ve got in store for you two traitors!” 

“I don’t think it counts as treachery when we were both under your spells in the first place, Rita.” Tommy snapped, fists clenched at his sides. “Now what are you planning?” 

Her laugh didn’t get any better with repetition. “Now, what would be the fun of just telling you? You’ll find out soon enough! But for right now, we’re going on a little trip. It’s boring, so I think you should just take a nap!” 

“No way am I sleeping with you around!” Kat declared, twisting her wrist to summon her Zeonizer. Maybe she couldn’t get out of here unmorphed, but there wasn’t much that could hold a fully charged Power Ranger. Tommy echoed her action a heartbeat later. 

“It’s morph-“ 

Rita stamped her staff on the ground with a solid crack. “That wasn’t actually a suggestion.” Dark orange smoke boiled up from within the sphere, setting them both to coughing too hard to focus on morphing. Kat tried to get to Tommy, but she’d barely managed three steps before her legs gave out from under her and she pitched forward into the darkness. The last sound she heard was Rita’s triumphant cackle. 

* * *

Rita smirked down at the two unconscious Rangers, pleased as punch. Phase one of her master plan was now complete! Phase two wouldn’t take any time at all, since it involved a quick spell to conceal the fact she’d even been there. Zordon wasn’t going to interfere this time! 

Once she took care of that, she split the sphere holding her captives in half and slipped them through the dimensions to one of her favorites: the Plains of Regret. 

“Stay here a while, kitty. Say, forever?” Rita dumped Kat out; the smoke would wear off in another hour or so, but there was no way the blonde would find her way out of there. _And now, for the second half of phase three!_

A simple Dark Dimension did for that, full of smoke and glistening beams of pale green light. These beams would give Tommy quite the surprise should he touch one. She dropped him there and vanished. Neither of them would need guards, not with the spells of confusion and misdirection she’d wrapped around both of their prisons. By the time the sun came up, she would be surprised if either of them would ever be able to fight again. 

“Now to get back up there.” She glowered briefly in the moon’s general direction. “They’d better not have eaten all the pizza.” 

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** I’ve had this on my back burner for _ages_ and I decided at long last it was time to finish and post it. So, here it is. Updates will be on Sundays and Wednesdays.


	2. Chapter 2

**Word Count:** 8,902/32,000|| **Chapter Count:** 2/8

* * *

Zordon seldom slept, at least not that most humans would’ve noticed. Being trapped in this strange dimension took care of almost all of his needs. Rita certainly hadn’t expected that, he felt. He wondered at times if she knew how much good she’d done by sheer accident. There were moments he wished he could tell her, partially because he felt she should know, partially because he knew how much it would infuriate her. 

His Rangers would never believe he even entertained the thought of being so petty, no matter how rare the occasions were when he did. 

Tonight, though, other thoughts occupied his mind. He was all but certain that Rita and Zedd were up to something, as his Rangers would put it. Exactly what he still hadn’t figured out, but he hadn’t given up thinking about it. Until today he’d had time to concern himself with other matters. All indications pointed to the Machine Empire not being a viable threat in the near future, which gave time not only for Zedd and Rita to get up to their old tricks, but for Zordon to put the finishing touches on certain improvements for the Rangers. 

Now, however, he worried at the implications of the surprise attack by Rito, Goldar, and the Tengas. What _could_ Rita and Zedd have on their minds? Most of their schemes involved whatever was going on in the Rangers’ lives, but nothing of that sort seemed the type to catch their attention right now. The only important events in the offing were a charity tournament for the Little Angels Haven and the Rangers’ upcoming graduation. A month remained before either of those and it wasn’t at all like Rita and Zedd to plan that far ahead. 

Part of his attention he kept on the monitors, ready for anything. He had a truly different view of them than what those in the Power Chamber saw. To him, it was merely a matter of feeling something off in the webs of power that wove around Earth. He could usually tell when someone of extraordinary evil set foot on Earth, though not always where or what they were doing. 

Such a twitch rippled through the fabric of reality for a moment. It was little more than a blip, but it was something all the same. He turned his attention for it, seeking any kind of answer, or more definition. All he could locate was a faint whiff of concealment magic a few blocks from Katherine’s home. He bent most of his focus there; had she made it home safely? 

Zordon’s suspicions grew darker as he realized that she hadn’t. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere he could find her, nor was Tommy. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. It was time to call the Rangers. 

* * *

Kat groaned, hand going to her forehead. Someone had set up a drum-set in there and now played solo, badly. “Ow…Tommy?” She knew he should be there; they’d been going home. Something happened…what was it? She couldn’t remember. 

She pushed herself up to her feet, looking around for Tommy as she did. Instead of Tommy, what met her eyes was an endless gray plain with an equally endless gray sky overhead. She thought some of the gray might be clouds, since she couldn’t see a sun anywhere. Clouds or sky, not a shred of shadow could be seen anywhere. Gray grass grew in sparse clumps scattered around her, and she could hear something she thought might be a stream of some kind, or water going over rocks at least. 

“Tommy?” Kat cried out again, fear and worry twisting in her guts. “Tommy, are you here?” 

If he was, he didn’t answer. No one did. Kat tapped at her communicator, heart thudding faster and faster. “Zordon! Alpha! This is Kat, can you read me?” Empty silence alone answered her. She swallowed hard and tried to teleport out of there. Maybe she could at least get back home if she couldn’t talk to anyone. 

Some small part of her wasn’t surprised to find that teleportation didn’t work either. 

_All right, what else?_ Only one answer came, and she steeled herself to try. “It’s morphing time! Zeo Ranger One, Pink!” 

Nothing happened. She was almost getting used to it. 

She set her jaw, determined not to give in to fear. _I’m alone. I don’t know where I am. I can’t morph, I can’t get in touch with anyone, and I don’t know how to get out of here._ She looked around one last time for Tommy. Nothing but gray met her eyes. _What’s Rita up to now?_

With that, memory flooded back. Rita! Rita was what happened to them! The strange shield, the orange smoke. Now she knew at least a little more than she had moments before. This was all one of Rita’s schemes. There would be a way home, somewhere. If nothing else, the Rangers would find her. But until then, she wasn’t going to stand around and collect moss. This plain couldn’t _really_ be endless, no matter what it looked like. It would end somewhere. The best way to find out where would be to get moving and find it for herself. 

Picking a direction at random, Kat did just that. 

* * *

Tommy rolled over onto his back and refused to open his eyes. From the way his head throbbed, whatever was out there wasn’t anything he wanted to see. Just from the all too familiar lack of scent and the feel of the cold floor under his hands, he knew where he was. 

_One of Rita’s Dark Dimensions._ He hadn’t been in one in years, but he recognized it anyway. Once there, you never forgot it. He’d walked the few paces these tiny holding cells comprised a thousand times in his nightmares. He didn’t want to open his eyes and see it for real. 

But no matter how much he didn’t want to, he did. He drew in a deep gulp of air and flipped to his feet, standing ready to face whatever gauntlet Rita threw at him. Goldar, Rito, Putties, Tengas, monsters, evil versions of himself or his friends. He’d seen it all before, more times than he cared to think of, and he was ready for anything. 

Except what he saw. Clouds and light alone surrounded him, with the steel floor beneath him, and glimmering beams forming the bars of the cell. He shifted nervously, a thin trickle of sweat tracing its way down his spine to the small of his back. This wasn’t what he expected. This wasn’t _right_. 

Silence. Shadows. Light. Tommy shifted again before he tried his communicator. Five minutes later, with both communicator and Zeonizer dead to his call, he glared at the light and shadows both. _Should’ve guessed they wouldn’t work._ Memories he’d tucked away for years began to flicker and flare in this uncertain light. Yes, he should’ve known. Because that was how evil worked. Cut the hero off from his friends, from his base, and you’d clearly won half the battle. 

He’d done it like that before. He knew. 

Tommy fought back fear. All of that ended long ago. He knew himself and he wasn’t Rita’s lackey anymore. He was the Red Zeo Ranger and he’d find his way out of here. And if somehow he couldn’t, then the other Rangers would track him down. Those times when it was someone else being held, he knew that _he_ made endless efforts to find them. He trusted that his friends would do the same thing now. 

He shoved experimentally at one of the thick bars, just on the off chance it would do something interesting. Rita was just crazy enough to try something like that. He could easily imagine her cackling over how he could escape if he’d only do something that she knew he wouldn’t do. 

Electricity shot through him, knocking him backwards, his teeth chattering in shock, hands flailing for something to grab onto. Without realizing it, he stumbled right into one of the bars of light on the other side of the cell. He froze where he stood, energy and images sweeping through him. 

_Himself, wearing white, a warm smile on his lips as he looked…down at himself?_

 _No, not at himself. He wasn’t him. He was short, agile, confident._

He was Kimberly. 

More images flooded his mind, ones far too familiar though he hadn’t thought about them in a long time. “I’ll call once a week. I’d make it once a day, but you know those long-distance charges.” He could feel the warmth in her voice when she spoke, the fear, the excitement, the tension, the anticipation. It was all his when he spoke, but hers at the same time. 

“Don’t worry about it, beautiful. You could call once a year and I wouldn’t care. Just knowing you’re out there living your dream is good enough for me.” True words, words he’d meant then and would always mean. Kim being happy meant more to him than how often he heard from her. 

He stumbled away from the bar and sagged to his knees, heart beating as if he’d just sparred with Jason for two hours straight. _What was that?_ Had Kim really felt like that when she’d left? He knew how _he’d_ felt then, so… 

It had to be true. If Rita set that up, then it would’ve been different somehow. More lies, less honesty. Taunting him about how nothing lasted, how no one could be trusted. But why would he get to feel that now, that he didn’t know. Rita’s scheme didn’t yet make sense. He knew that not all of hers did, but this one would, once he knew all of it. That was the key point: figuring all of it out so he could see how to bring it down around her ears. He had to believe that. 

Would touching other light beams tell him more? What else _could_ he be told? There was only one way to find out. He braced himself and reached for the nearest one. 

_Flying. A long trip finally over. Tired, but the sun shone still when the van pulled up outside of a gated community. Coach Schmidt, smiling and welcoming her, insisting she rest before he introduced her to everyone else. Bedroom. A little small, but nice. Then, sleep._

Tommy kept searching, kept leaping from one memory to another. Somewhere in all of this was the key, the way out and the way back to Earth. He had to find it. He _would_ find it. Then he’d go find Kat and they’d both be out of here. 

Faces he didn’t recognize, but events she told him of in those letters and weekly phone calls. It took a few moments for him to make the connections, but once he did, he started to make them faster and faster. 

Then another face. Kim’s heart beat faster at the sight of him, no matter that she loved Tommy. Tommy knew who he was, as soon as he realized that. 

He’d thought he was ready. He knew he was ready to date again. He hadn’t thought he would be for the longest time, but he was. Just a few tentative steps. 

But ready to see The Other Guy, as he’d dubbed Kim’s mystery boyfriend, in his mind? The one she’d chosen instead of him? She hadn’t even told him the guy’s name, not in that letter or any of the few calls or letters that followed. Tommy wasn’t sure if he’d ever be ready for that. He wanted to be; he wanted to make certain that this guy was as good for Kim as she’d wanted him to be. 

Yet there the guy was, and bit by bit everything unfolded as if he lived Kim’s life in a matter of moments. Kim tried to be polite. She was. She consciously chose not to tell him of this guy. She didn’t want him to worry. _He has other things to worry about._

But days turned into weeks and weeks into months. Distance drifted between them in their calls and letters and those few visits she’d been able to make. Distance he hadn’t seen or felt at the time. But she had. With only her gymnastics and classes, she saw more clearly than he did. 

It would’ve happened with or without the guy – whose name he still couldn’t catch, thanks a lot for that, Rita. Whoever it was only given Kim someone else. But now Kim forged her own path, and while she would always care for him, love wasn’t in the cards. Not like they’d both once thought. 

A hard knot he’d pretended for months wasn’t in his chest eased. _It wasn’t my fault._ He’d worried about that. Had he been a bad boyfriend? Should he have fought harder to keep her? If he’d rushed there to talk to her or even just tried to call her and try to pry out answers she wasn’t ready to give yet, then would it have been different? 

No. Even if he had, nothing would have changed. At least now they could be friends. He valued that more than anything else, even with the sting of the breakup letter. 

A letter. A _letter_. His fists clenched without only his mildest awareness. Couldn’t she have called? Made time for a visit? Anything that wasn’t a letter? He did his best to keep his temper, since he knew it wouldn’t do any good to lose it. His sensei taught him control. But control didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt. 

_Everything would be perfect if it weren’t for hurting you._ It had hurt anyway, whether she’d wanted it to or not. He needed something to ease that pain, to make himself feel good again. He’d done all he could to forget it in the first week. The ski trip, Heather, finding out about David, the Red Battlezord, all of it had given him so much else to think about that he’d forgotten the pain. 

But it had still been there, lurking, waiting. Until the day he’d looked at Kat and once again his breath caught in his throat and he knew there was something special here, something he’d never let himself consider until there was room to consider it honestly. 

Unknown, unseen by Tommy, a faint wisp of fog floated into the room, merging seamlessly with the clouds already around him, weaving its way into his thoughts, tugging them into the direction Rita wanted them to go. 

Kat, blonde, beautiful, caring, kind, giving of herself to the point she’d only seen _his_ pain when he hurt. That anyone might’ve construed this as ‘her chance’ never crossed her mind. He knew that without a shadow of a doubt. 

_Why Kat? Why not someone else?_ Images flickered through his mind of other girls he’d seen at school, at the beach, at Ernie’s, anywhere else. So many of them pretty in so many different ways, and nice, many of whom appealed to him. Was it because of the secret? Of being Rangers? Kim had left him after she gave up being a Ranger… 

He knew they’d all have to move on one day. Zordon told them that it was inevitable when humans were involved in being Power Rangers. Teenage humans were the best suited for the Power and they had other goals to strive for. On other worlds, other rules applied, which was why the Aquitian Rangers were adults and why Trey was the ruler of Triforia _and_ an adult. 

But now he wondered: when he and Kat passed their power to other people, would she dump him? Would he dump her? 

Yes. That was it. This wasn’t love. How could it be. Kim was a Pink Ranger. Kat was a Pink Ranger. He was a Ranger. He could hardly date someone who didn’t know and that was a dwindling small list. Kim, Trini, Aisha, Tanya… 

Kim broke up with him. Aisha lived in Africa. Tanya…she and Adam had a sort of understanding. He wasn’t certain if he could call it dating but it wouldn’t be right to make a move that way regardless. 

There was no way he’d _ever_ date Rita, even if she weren’t married. Scorpina… 

Tommy wasn’t sure if he shuddered, twitched, or had to hold back nausea at that. Memories of moments he preferred not to remember at all twisted and danced in the back of his mind, flashes of moments when he’d been under Rita’s spell and after Scorpina awoke, the way that she smiled at him. He shoved them away ruthlessly. Scorpina. No. End of argument. 

There weren’t any others, at least not on Earth. He didn’t know anyone on any other planets, not like Billy had found. 

Maybe after he gave up his Power he could find someone else, like Kim had. He was still young. Why tie himself down to one girl when he was still a month away from graduating high school? Kat had made a few noises about being a professional ballerina, at least for a few years. She wouldn’t stay in Angel Grove for that. There would be another letter, from one side or the other. He’d have to give her up as well. 

Why wait? Why drag it out another year or more? Why, when he knew what would come in the end? 

Why not just end it now and get the healing started? Once he wasn’t a Ranger, the girls would flock to him and it would be all so easy. Or he could just not date for a while at all, give himself time to figure out things while on his own. After they gave up the power would be the best time to start. No secrets to keep. No lies to tell about why he broke a date. No need to break a date at all, because it wouldn’t be his job anymore. 

For that matter, why not quit early? It couldn’t take that much effort to find a replacement. They’d been watching out for suitable people for a while now. Once he made his decision, then he’d be free. Completely free, as he hadn’t been since the day Rita chose him. This was all her fault, anyway. Just like Kat said, without Rita, he’d be normal, happy. Someone else would’ve had these problems. He didn’t want them. He never wanted them. 

Something else fluttered in the back of his mind, but Tommy tried not to see it. He wanted that vision of being free, of never again being a Power Ranger. Was that so wrong? 

* * *

“What is it, Zordon?” Adam asked as the remaining Rangers materialized in the Power Chamber. Zordon hated calling them so close to the end of the day but Rita didn’t always confine her attacks to convenient moments. 

“Katherine and Tommy are missing, Rangers. I noticed a masking spell near Katherine’s home and neither she nor Tommy are anywhere on Earth.” Zordon’s worried gaze bent down toward them. He’d spent more time checking while waiting for Tanya, Adam, and Rocky to answer him and nothing he found was good. “I fear Rita’s newest scheme has begun.” 

Tanya stepped forward, hands clenched tight. “So if they’re not on Earth, where are they?” 

“We don’t know yet, Tanya, but we’re working on finding out. Rita has a whole lot of dimensions she can keep them in and even more ways to hide them from our search scans.” Alpha told her. “We know most of them, but it still takes time to find and check them all, and we aren’t picking up any signal from their communicators.” 

Rocky winced and shook his head. “Times like this, I wish Billy was still here.” 

“I’m not that far away.” A very familiar voice spoke from the Viewing Globe and everyone turned to see their old friend there. Billy grinned back at them, as clear and cheerful as if he’d never left. “I got your message, Zordon. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” 

“Thank you, Billy.” Zordon inclined his head as the image on the globe faded away. “I sent a message to Aquitar once I was certain of Rita’s involvement. With Billy’s help, we should find them that much sooner.” 

The unspoken ‘if at all’ hovered in the air, even as the Rangers spread out to lend what help they could toward finding their missing friends. Any progress they could make before Billy got there could only help. 

* * *

Rita shivered with delight as she watched Tommy crumble under his own emotional onslaught. “That was so easy I don’t know why I didn’t try it sooner!” Tommy’s insecurities and self-doubt screamed ‘weak spot’ and she wished she’d seen it sooner. Oh, well. Better late than never! 

She shifted her attention to Kat; that one would be slower, due to the differences in the Plains of Regret against the Dark Dimension, but she had no doubts that before long, the kitty would be as helpless and useless as Tommy already was. That would be every bit as beautiful. Probably even more so; she wouldn’t know until it happened. 

“Is all going well, my noxious blossom?” Of course, it was Zedd again. If she didn’t need him, she would’ve gotten rid of him already. But for now, he was still useful. Maybe once she’d finished off the other Rangers, she could find a way to get rid of him too. Being undisputed Empress of the Universe sounded like the best birthday gift _ever_. 

She’d have to get rid of a few other contenders to her future throne, but once she had the Rangers and Zordon defeated, then some of them would just step out of her way. Even Dark Spectre would have to respect her then! 

She tossed on a brilliant smile as she faced her husband. “Of course! Did you expect anything less from me?” She could tell he was about to say something and set a finger against his grill. “Don’t answer that.” 

Wanting to make certain he didn’t try anything else, she gestured with her wand, expanding her observation spell so h could see what Kat and Tommy experienced. “Tommy’s self-doubts are being expanded, based on everything I could think of, including how much he hates _us_!” Rita couldn’t help a cackle at that. “No one can change it, because it’s all coming from inside of him. I’m just giving it a boost!” 

Zedd rubbed his chin, the sound of metal on metal grating against her ears. “Interesting. And what of Kat?” 

Another quick wave of her wands revealed the blonde as she trudged through a field of endless gray. “It’s taking longer with her, but I’ve got something planned that will speed up the process. It’s not nice to steal someone’s boyfriend!” Rita laughed again before another thought occurred to her. “How far are we from the castle?” If she could get there and find a few certain ingredients, the spells she’d already cast would be made permanent. Until then, despite what she’d told Zedd, there was still a way for them to crack. A small way, but one that she didn’t want exploited anyway. Zordon was too much in the habit of finding her spells’ weak points for her to take the chance. 

“We should be there tomorrow morning. Just a few more hours.” Zedd gestured in the way they’d been going, more or less. “It depends on who’s driving at the time. Our misdirection spells work very well against _us_ too.” 

Rita grumbled at that; one of her first acts once released from her dumpster prison had been to cast spells to divert all the attention of anyone who came near her newly claimed castle. Only someone of her blood, such as Rito or her father, could pass by them magically, or someone of greater power than she, such as Zedd. The Rangers had been known to teleport from time to time, but they used Zordon’s power to do so, and while the Machine Empire hadn’t known the exact location, they’d simply assaulted half the moon to get them to flee. 

Still, it made it annoying to try and get back there once she’d left. It was all Zedd’s fault anyway. Somehow. She’d figure out the details another time. For now, she bent her gaze back to Kat. It was time to amp things up for her treacherous spy. 

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** It’s so nostalgic writing for my oldest fandom.


	3. Chapter 3

**Word Count:** 13,950/32,000|| **Chapters:** 3/8

* * *

Kat’s random choice of direction hadn’t been so random as all that; she’d headed for the sound of water over rocks. She wasn’t sure what kind of acoustics this place had, or if they conformed to anything like what she knew on Earth, but it still took her close to an hour to get to where the stream flowed through a low depression in the land. At least she thought it was an hour. The watch function on her communicator didn’t work any better than the teleportation or communication ones did. 

The stream poured from a crack between two rocks (gray, of course), and cascaded down a small hill across the landscape, weaving out of sight. Kat knelt by it and filled her hands, tipping the water into her dry mouth carefully. _I can see why people invented cups._ She did manage to get enough into her mouth to slake her thirst, though the water itself tasted blander than any other water she’d ever had. It still did the job but there wasn’t any enthusiasm about it. 

She leaned against one of the rocks and tried again to raise someone, anyone, on her communicator. Maybe whatever blocked her earlier was just a local effect, and moving would help. If this were true, then she hadn’t moved far enough yet. 

_Whatever Rita’s planning, I’ve got to get back and help stop it._ That was what she did. She was a Power Ranger. More than that, she wanted to make certain Rita never hurt anyone else like she’d bee hurt. Granted, she’d gained a lot from it, including her love of diving back, but that didn’t mean Rita could have a free hand with the world. 

She probed at the part of her mind that once resonated with Rita’s dark magic. She’d been able before to help Tommy by hearing Rita’s thoughts, just after the spell on her broke. Maybe she could still do it, if she tried hard enough. So, she closed her eyes, clenched her fists, concentrated with every scrap of power in herself. 

Nothing. Nothing at all. Kat sagged against the boulder and slammed one fist against the dry ground in frustration. _You’d think it would stick around long enough to do some real good._ Of course, that was Rita all over. The only good she did was by accident. 

_Can good really come from evil?_ Kat wondered, shifting to get more comfortable. _Wouldn’t the good be tainted by it? Look at yourself. Aren’t you still just a little dark?_

She shifted more, a sudden prickle of unease shivering through her. She’d worried about that frequently in the months since Kim handed over her Power Coin. Just how good of a Ranger could she really be? Sure, Tommy was a fantastic Ranger and he’d been even worse under Rita’s magic than she’d been. Even in Australia, they’d heard of the Evil Green Ranger and how much damage he’d caused. People died because of him, and he’d gone on to become the leader of the Rangers. If good couldn’t come from evil, then did that make Tommy evil? 

No, of course not. And she wasn’t, either. But that still didn’t mean she wasn’t a little…gray. Would a truly pure person do what she was doing? Dating Tommy? Kim’s ex? Her friend’s ex? Weren’t there rules about that kind of thing? She’d heard some of the girls whispering something about that just a few days ago. She hadn’t paid that much attention when it happened, but it all came back to her now. 

_I heard she’s been after Tommy since she got here, even when he and Kim were dating. And she’s the one who found Kim when Kim hurt herself. Well, they **say** Kat found her…_

A horrified gasp. _You don’t mean…but she’s so nice!_

_Would a really nice girl date her friend’s boyfriend? You don’t see me going after Mark, do you? No, I didn’t think so. I’m just saying that maybe she’s not as perfect as people want to think she is._

Kat’s breath hissed between her teeth and her fingers clutched at the dry stalks of grass beneath her. She hadn’t done anything wrong! She shouldn’t have to ask permission from anyone when she wanted to date a person except whoever it was! For that matter, _Kim_ didn’t mind them dating! No one knew that better than she did, since she’d already asked her! And not to ‘get permission’, either! 

She didn’t know if Kim still talked to Tommy, since she hadn’t asked, but the subject of Tommy dating again had come up during one of her regular phone calls to Kim. Kim’s reaction had been very simple: she wanted to see Tommy happy. If he dated someone else, so be it. When Tommy asked her out, Kat took that as Kim’s blessing. 

_But you haven’t told her yet, have you?_ That slightly poisonous voice, vocal twin to her own, slid through her thoughts. _Maybe she didn’t mean you. You told her about Heather. You didn’t mention you. You know it’s wrong. So why are you still doing it?_

Kat stared up into the sky, still not sure if the gray up there were clouds or not. She’d liked Tommy from the moment she’d first seen him. She’d been so wrapped up in Rita’s magic that she’d never questioned it. If it helped her Empress, she’d do anything. She’d even been promised Tommy as a toy once the Rangers were defeated. And she could do anything she wanted to Kim as well. Like make her watch herself and Tommy make out with one another repeatedly. She enjoyed many such fantasies in those days. 

_But I’m not like that anymore!_ Kat howled to herself. _I’m not dating him to hurt her!_

But perhaps what she was doing was worse: dating him to please herself instead of out of love. 

_But I do._ She shivered; she’d never thought about loving Tommy. She did like him, but love him? She didn’t know. 

_Of course you don’t._ That voice mocked her yet. _How could you. He’s not yours to love. He might not be Kim’s, but he isn’t yours, either, and he never will be. You need to let him go. It’s wrong to date without love. It’s wrong for you to date him. He’s too good for you. He’s done so much after what Rita did to him. What have you done? What have you really done? Stopped a few monsters? As if no one else could do that. Doesn’t Zordon want you to find a successor anyway? Anyone could do this. Of course, it should be the right someone, but it’s not as if you’re the only person in the world who could._

Kat’s hands clenched harder at the grass. Those words slammed into her like small bullets. This couldn’t be right. But she couldn’t find a flaw in the logic. 

_You don’t want flaws. You want to give all this up and find a boyfriend you don’t need to worry about. Someone who doesn’t belong to someone else. Someone who can belong to you. Someone you can belong to. Someone you can really love who can love you back._

Kat could feel her shoulders slumping. It was true, all of it. She didn’t want all of these problems. She needed to think about her future, about studying ballet after graduation. She needed to find a successor, so she could focus on her life. 

A successor who hadn’t been tainted by evil. Someone who could approach being a Ranger with that childlike sense of awe she’d seen in Tanya when the Yellow Ranger first took up the power. Someone truly pure. 

Someone who could be a better Ranger than she could ever be herself. There was someone out there like that, hopefully in Angel Grove. The question was finding her. 

It would take time, but she had to do it. Then she could find that new love for herself, clean and free and not held back by the dark chains of the past. 

She let herself slide farther down, eyes still closed. Whenever she left this place, she decided, she’d put all of her time into finding the next Pink Ranger. And to make certain she had all of the time she needed, she would break up with Tommy. 

* * *

Rita threw her head back and laughed as she hadn’t in centuries. This was magnificent! Everything she’d hoped for and more! Perfect! Wonderful! 

“Now, it’s two down and three to go!” Rita screeched, within a breath of dancing in delight. “All I have to do is figure out _their_ weak points!” Kat and Tommy had been the easiest of the five. Their little love-doviness gave her a perfect opening, combined with their own history with her. The others wouldn’t be this easy, but she was certain she could do it. Just seeing these two weakened and broken would start the process. 

Zedd folded his arms over his chest and glared at her. It was a glare of pride, though. “I wouldn’t be so sure. The Rangers haven’t quit yet. And then we’d still have new Rangers to deal with.” 

“ _New_ Rangers, Zedd!” Rita pointed out with more than a hint of _do I have to spell this out for you?_ in her tone. “Ones who won’t know us! Inexperienced ones we can overwhelm in just a few days.” 

“Like that’s ever worked before.” Zedd snorted. “You’ve got to have better ideas than that, Rita. I want something that can end _all_ of the Rangers, past, present, and future, _and_ Zordon. That’s not so hard for you, is it?” 

Rita ground her teeth. She hated it when Zedd started to throw his weight around. “Of course not.” She refused to look at him, not wanting a hint of her true feelings to escape. “But first things first. We finish the Rangers we have now, then any that come after them.” 

She checked the barriers she’d placed around the two prisons and hissed. “Zordon’s almost found them. He’s getting closer.” She didn’t _want_ them found until she was ready for it. She couldn’t yet trust her spells to hold solid. Blast Zordon! Couldn’t he take a nap just once? 

* * *

“I think we’ve got something!” Billy shouted, hands dancing over the controls. “I’m getting a visual now. It’s one of Rita’s Dark Dimensions, that’s for sure.” His lip curled as he exchanged a quick look with Alpha. They’d seen those dimensions far too many times He didn’t stop what he was doing, though. “Coming up on the Viewing Globe now.” 

Everyone turned to look as the images resolved into clarity. Tommy sat in the center of the prison dimension, in a posture none of them could remember seeing him in before: head down, shoulders slumped, barely breathing, though not with a single mark on him.

“Whoa. Something is really wrong here.” Rocky murmured what they all thought. “Can we talk to him?” 

“Not yet. I can’t get through the communicators barrier Rita’s got up.” Billy kept working, gaze intent as his fingers flew. “It shouldn’t take much longer, though.” He had experience with this. Too much, in his opinion. 

“Any sign of Kat yet?” Adam wanted to know, throwing a quick look over at the ex-Ranger as he worked on. 

“Coming up now.” Tommy’s image faded, replaced by Kat. She didn’t look any better than he did, sunk in gray grass in a gray world. 

“Those are the Plains of Regret. Rita keeps them as a prison for those who fail her too often. Anyone sent there regrets all that they’ve done eventually, whether or not they should.” Zordon told them. 

Billy worked even faster; when Rita worked on someone, they needed anything from a few kinds words to a trip out of town to clear their heads. Sometimes more. What was difficult would be finding out which kind words and from whom, or where to go, in order to help this time. And when the two involved had both been under Rita’s spells before, perhaps more than kind word would be needed. 

_What’s Rita doing?_ Those thoughts burned in all of them. Just seeing Kat and Tommy like that offered up more than enough thoughts for all of them, and none of them were thoughts that they liked. They needed to get their friends out of there, and the sooner the better. 

Billy slammed his fists down on the console, a few words that didn’t sound like any language any of them knew hovering on his lips. Zordon coughed politely and Billy glanced up, a hint of red on his cheeks. 

“Sorry,” he muttered, staring back at the consoles. “I was so close and then it changed. I’m going to have to start all over again.” 

Adam rested a hand briefly on Billy’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll help.” 

“Right,” Rocky agreed. “Just tell us what you need us to do.” 

Billy’s gaze flicked between the three of them, a warming smile now on his lips. “Well, to start with -” 

Alarms and lights rang throughout the Power Chamber and all of them turned toward the monitors without hesitation. On some level they’d all expected it. What else would Rita and Zedd do except send a monster of some kind? 

* * *

“Finster! I need a monster!” Rita declared. She hadn’t needed him for monsters on a regular basis for a while – Zedd made pretty good ones really – but this time Zedd wanted her to handle it herself and that meant she needed Finster’s help. And he’d better give it to her. 

Finster hurried up, his book already in his hands. “Is there anything in particular you would like, my queen? I’m very low on the proper supplies, though. You’ll have to choose carefully.” 

Of course. What else could possibly go wrong? Everything had been going wrong for her ever since she’d gotten out of that blasted trash can and first seen Earth. Why couldn’t she have escaped somewhere else, with a decent population and no Zordon to create Rangers who spent the next few years stopping her like they had nothing better to do with their time? 

She flipped a few pages of the book, trying to make up her mind. There were so many options and some of them she’d used against the Rangers before. Not necessarily these Rangers, but she hated to repeat herself anyway. Especially not when she was so very close to her ultimate win. 

_I wonder if I could get them to get rid of Zedd, too._ That would put her into an even better position than just disposing of the Rangers. 

She would have to make certain that he left everything to her without any other claimants to fuss with her, though. She wanted a takeover where no one argued with her about it, not even Dark Spectre. 

One drawing caught her eye and she pointed it out. “I want that one! Right now!” 

Finster stared down at it before he started to shake his head. “I’m sorry, my queen, but that’s one of the ones that I can’t do. It requires far more ingredients than I have and I can’t get any more right now. You know the problems we’ve had with deliveries.” 

Unfortunately true. She stared down harder, then made up her mind. “If you can’t do it, then I’ll do it myself!” 

“My queen?” 

Rita paid no more attention to him, raising her staff instead. She didn’t always create her monsters like this but it would have to do. Power spun from the tip of the staff, swirling outward to enfold the drawing. Sparks and stars spun all around, spinning from the book out to in front of them. Between one moment and the next, a gigantic spine-covered creature stood before her. 

“Greetings, evil Queen!” The creature declared, bowing down to her, voice harsh and rough. “Whatever can I do to thank you for creating me?” 

“There’s only one thing that I want: destroy the Power Rangers!” Rita told it. “Now, tell me your name and what you can do.” 

She knew what it was supposed to be and what she’d wanted it to do, but sometimes the magic did strange things when actually creating a creature. Better to ask than to get nasty surprises. It wouldn’t be the first time. 

“I’m the FireHog!” It waved one hand and a stream of bright blue flames leaped into existence. “My fire is bigger, brighter, and burns more than any other fire in all the universe! Water can’t put it out at all. I evaporate water!” 

Rita nodded thoughtfully; this was better than she’d thought, at least for now. “What else?” 

“See these?” The FireHog waved to the spines it was covered with. “I can throw these and not only does whatever I hit get burned up, but if it’s alive, it gets poisoned too! It’s a slow one, one that could take days to finish off whoever it is!” 

Rita began to smile. This was very much sounding like a monster that she should have created a long time ago. 

“Then get down to Earth and start wrecking things! And if you get a chance to shoot one of those things at a Power Ranger, then you do it!” 

The FireHog saluted, nearly putting its own eye out in the process. “Yes, ma’am!” 

As it vanished in a stream of fire-colored steam, Rita Repulsa let out another laugh, her most intense one yet. Whether or not the Rangers beat her monster – and how could they with two Rangers being out of commission – this was going just as she wanted it to! Finally! 

* * *

“The FireHog. And it brought a bunch of Tengas with it,” Adam said, looking at the results on the monitor. 

“You must be very careful, Rangers. I will set Alpha to researching an antidote for the FireHog’s poisonous spines and a way to quench its flames.” So far no one had been hit by a spike or set on fire but they hadn’t made it this far without planning ahead. 

“I’m going to keep working on getting in touch with Kat and Tommy,” Billy said. He ran one hand through his hair, breathing out. “Wish I could help with this.” 

“Don’t worry, Billy. We’ve got this.” Adam reassured him with a quick smile before he turned to the other two Rangers. “Come on, let’s get this thing taken care of.” 

In a few heartbeats, Billy was the only human left in the Power Chamber. He breathed again, hating the near silence all around. All the various machines still beeped, hummed, and whirred, not to mention the monitors set to watch the monster and the Rangers offered a live view of what was going on. But it wasn’t the same as having people there to talk to. 

_Back to work,_ he told himself, hands moving over the console yet again. He could feel Zordon’s attention on him, and he knew if he said anything, their old mentor would definitely reply. But he wanted to focus all of his efforts on the search. If he took a few moments away, for any reason whatsoever, then Rita could shift things again. Finding them the first time had been more than hard enough. Finding them again might be the next thing to impossible. 

He was pretty good at doing the impossible. 

* * *

No sooner did the three Rangers land than a blast of fire soared toward them. Tanya, Rocky, and Adam all ducked out of the way, letting it flow over their heads and slam into a tree. It wasn’t the first time that something ended up on fire during a battle and none of them thought it would be the last. They all trusted Alpha to get it put out before it spread. 

“Welcome, Rangers!” The FireHog declared, waving spike-covered arms. All of them tensed, ready to dodge again, but nothing came out just yet. “Oh, I thought there were five of you! Did I miscount?” Its laugh was the kind of thing that made nails on a chalkboard sound pleasant. 

“We’re going to get them back!” Adam snapped. “But you’re not going to be around to see it.” 

“Are you sure about that?” The FireHog wanted to know. “Cause I think I’m going to stick around for a while, and you three are the ones who aren’t going to be here!” 

Rocky pointed at the monster. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. What have you got that we can’t handle?” 

“This!” Barely had the word left the FireHog’s mouth before a spike flew from its back to slam directly toward the Blue Ranger. He dodged out of the way just as the spike scraped the top of his helmet, and to make matters worse, before he could get himself back on his feet, Tengas swarmed in from nowhere, a good five or six circling each Ranger. “Let’s have some fun!” 

The Tengas tackled the Rangers, feathery fists flying and claws digging at their uniforms. The Rangers struggled, pushing back as hard as they could. Their Zeo powers were a great deal stronger than their Ninja powers had been, but at the moment, finding the right point of leverage so they could fight was the real problem. Tengas grabbed onto every part of them, piling on and holding them down. 

“Let go!” Tanya snapped, managing to get a few hits in. It didn’t do nearly as much as she would have liked, but she did what she could. “Adam, Rocky, you guys okay?” 

“Once we know what okay is, we’ll get back to you,” Adam said, straining harder at the Tengas as five held him down so three more could start throwing punches at his chest and stomach. His uniform kept him protected, but being held down meant that he couldn’t do all that much. “Rocky, how about you?” 

“Oh, I’m fine!” Rocky said. At least Adam thought that was what he said. It was hard to tell, since as far as he could see, there were two Tengas busily kicking his head from side to side and not letting him get a word in edgewise. 

To make it that much worse, the FireHog stalked closer to Rocky, both arms spread outward, fire racing up one side and down the other, a half dozen spikes raising up on its back, each one thick around as a human wrist and dripping with a sickly pale yellow coating. 

_That has to be the poison._

Adam didn’t want to find out the hard way. He threw himself even harder against the Tengas holding him down, dragging himself to his feet along with them. 

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” 

He just wanted to get the FireHog’s attention. Anything that would buy a few extra seconds. Those seconds could make so much of a difference in fights like this. 

He got the attention. One spike threw itself towards him and Adam stepped back on reflex. One of the Tengas holding onto him lost its grip and stumbled. It wasn’t much; it would barely have offered a breath of a moment to make an attack. 

But it was enough for the FireHog’s spike to slam into the back of the Tenga, burying itself all the way inside of the bird creature, who spread his wings, squawked, and swayed. Adam caught sight of the eyes, large and wide and confused, shot through with pain. 

_That could have hit me..._

He wasn’t sure of what to think of it hitting the Tenga instead and he didn’t really have time to think much about it in the first place. The Tengas holding onto him loosened their grip long enough for him to wrench away, though the ones holding Tanya and Rocky didn’t seem to care so much. 

“That really -” The Tenga squawked, wings twitching once, twice, and no more. It toppled over, eyes glazed, and a small explosion shattered the air, leaving behind nothing more than a few scattered feathers. 

The FireHog stared at the Tenga remains, then at Adam, a cruel smile flaring across fire-painted features. “If it does that to a Tenga, I wonder what it will do to a human!” Another spike began to rise. “Let’s find out!” 

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** Yes, I killed a Tenga.


	4. Chapter 4

**Word Count:** 17,970/32,000|| **Chapters:** 4/8

* * *

“I thought you said that the poison would take hours to work!” Rita shouted. She didn’t know who she shouted at, since it was the FireHog that told her that and the monster was still down on Earth sparring against the Power Rangers – and doing a relatively decent job of it, too. 

Zedd snorted, staring down at Earth through his visor. “I wouldn’t object to getting rid of the Rangers with just a single hit.” 

Rita wouldn’t either. It wasn’t her preferred method by any means – she wanted it to take time, she wanted them to suffer, just like she’d suffered ever since entering this war – but it would get the job done. But that also wasn’t what she’d been told and she wanted answers. 

Finster cleared his throat deferentially. “if I may, my queen?” 

She waved one hand. If he knew something, he should get on with telling her. He could be polite another day, after they’d defeated the Rangers. 

“The FireHog’s poison _does_ take hours to take effect: twelve of them, to be precise. But only when the poison has been inflicted upon a human, or certain other species. His needle this time struck one of your Tenga warriors, and the effect on them is almost instantaneous.” 

Rita frowned; that hadn’t occurred to her. _The best of both worlds?_ She considered it for a brief moment. Now the Rangers would know exactly what they faced, which could run the risk of them finding out how to cure the poison. 

“Finster,” she said, coming over to him. “That poison. Can it be countered?” 

What she wanted to hear was ‘no’. She would have settled for finding out that the cure had existed but no more or even that it was so rare that only people such as Divatox or Dark Spectre would have it, people that the Rangers would never be able to get it from. 

What she didn’t expect was what she _did_ hear. 

“I’ve been doing research on that, my queen. While normally the cure is all but impossible to find, I fear in this case our timing of this monster and your plan with Kat and Tommy were… ill-advised?” 

Rita gripped onto her staff a little harder at that. “What are you talking about? You have one minute to make this make sense, Finster!” 

He waved both fuzzy paws at her. “Please, my queen, listen! The cure is in the pollen of a flower that only grows on the Plains of Regret.” 

Oh. Now she understood. If she hadn’t sent Kat there, the Rangers would have had to waste more time searching for the Plains of Regret and perhaps not even been able to find them. They were one of her better hidden places, after all. 

But with Katherine already there, the Rangers had begun the search, and if they hadn’t found them, they likely would soon enough. Getting into them could still be a problem, but timing could be everything in situations like this. 

She swept up and down, pacing, trying to work out the best way to deal with this. Under most circumstances, she wouldn’t have cared if they’d found Kat and Tommy or not. The damage had been done and just needed time to set in. The FireHog’s attack had been meant to give that time. 

“FireHog!” Rita whirled around and snapped out the monster’s name, knowing that her creation would hear her loud and clear. “Keep it up with the Rangers! Don’t give them a moment’s rest unless I say so!” 

Her eyes narrowed and a quick smile wreathed across her face. “In fact, let’s wear them out a little more. Start attacking Angel Grove itself!” 

That would put civilians in danger and make sure the Rangers couldn’t look after themselves as much, let alone keep on searching for ways into the Plains of Regret. And that would put everything in her favor all over again. 

Rita liked it when things were in her favor. 

* * *

FireHog saluted Rita at once. It understood what it was supposed to do. 

“Gotta go, Rangers! There’s a whole lot of people who need the feel the burn!” 

With a quick gesture it teleported away, landing in the heart of the city moments later. This was going to be absolutely fun! At least for its definition of fun. 

* * *

“What just happened?” Tanya asked. The Tengas vanished almost as soon as FireHog did, letting all three of them up. She glanced around, as wary as Adam and Rocky were. This kind of thing could not be good. 

“Rangers!” Alpha’s voice came over the communicator. “FireHog is attacking people in the center of Angel Grove. So far no one’s been burned or poisoned, but it’s only a matter of time! You have to get there now!” 

“We’re on it, Alpha,” Adam said. “How’s it going trying to get to Kat and Tommy?” 

“Yeah,” Rocky nodded, stretching carefully and knocking a few stray Tenga feathers away. “We could really use their help out here.” 

Tanya wasn’t at all inclined to disagree. Having five Rangers out there would be a lot better than three. 

“We’re still working on it,” Billy answered, a little wearier than when they’d left the Power Chamber. “I think Rita knows what we’re doing and she’s not making this any easier on us.” 

“She never does,” Rocky muttered. “Come on, let’s go, guys.” 

Another day, another monster. It should have almost felt routine by now, but Tanya couldn’t bring herself to believe that, not right now. Especially not when they teleported to where FireHog was and she had to drop down almost on her stomach to avoid getting roasted by a blast of blue-white flame. 

“Whoa! That’s not good!” She’d never been too fond of fire. It could cause too much damage to the grasslands, killing everything in sight. 

Adam and Rocky hit the ground to either side of her and now they all looked up carefully, watching for any further signs of attack. What they saw were people running as fast as they could in any direction, screaming their heads off. 

Some things just _never_ changed in Angel Grove. 

As soon as they could without being burned, the three got to their feet. FireHog stood a short distance away, his attention on the people racing out of the way. 

“Come on, doesn’t anyone want to roast some marshmallows? Cook some hot dogs? I’ve got the fire!” 

“Hey!” Rocky shouted. “What do you think you’re doing?” 

FireHog turned towards them, tiny mouth frowning. “What are you doing here? Didn’t I leave you back there?” 

“So? You think we’re going to just stay there while you’re hurting other people?” Adam asked, taking a fighting stance, mirrored by Tanya and Rocky. 

FireHog let out a laugh, followed by a blast of fire that sent the three of them spinning in all different directions. 

“It would be smarter if you did! What makes you think that any of you can stop me?” Again he laughed and this stream of flame flew directly at Rocky. The Blue Ranger jumped out of the way in the nick of time, staring at the stop sign that ignited in the wake of the strike. 

“That’s _hot_!” The stop sign was already half melted in just a matter of seconds. 

“Of course it is! My fires are the hottest fires ever!” FireHog boasted, taking aim at a nearby building that quite a few bystanders had taken refuge in. “And you can’t put them out, either!” 

“That’s not true! There’s always something that can put out a fire!” Tanya declared. What did they have in their arsenal that might be able to do something? Just hitting it wasn’t doing nearly enough. 

Their blasters were the next step. She didn’t wait for the monster to answer, but pulled hers out and started firing, taking aim at the monster’s mouth. Something about that sparked a small thought in the back of her mind, something she couldn’t quite figure out the details of just yet. It would come to her, she didn’t doubt. She just didn’t have time to think about it right now. 

Adam and Rocky joined in, firing as fast as they could to interrupt FireHog’s attack. The monster stumbled back, glaring at them, waving stubby arms. 

“Hey! I’m trying to burn down some buildings here! Can’t you leave a guy alone?” 

“We don’t want you to burn down anything!” Adam snapped. “So, no, we’re not going to leave you alone!” 

Tanya aimed her blaster a bit higher, a small part of the idea slipping into better mental view. Her blast hit FireHog’s mouth just as another strike of fire came out, igniting it within a breath of FireHog itself. The monster shrieked in pain, stumbling back, and Tanya grinned. 

“That’s it! Aim for the mouth, right when it’s about to attack! That should stop it!” 

“Good idea!” 

She couldn’t see their faces while they were morphed, but the praise in Adam’s voice warmed Tanya down to the core. 

All three took aim this time as FireHog stared at them, then started to take a deep breath. “You’re not going to get away with this!” 

“We’re the ones who should be telling you that!” Tanya snapped. She could see the first wisps of fire and waited no longer. If FireHog could stop producing the attack, it didn’t, not this time. All three strikes hit in the same moment and FireHog pinwheeled back, waving at its mouth. 

“Hot! Hot! Hot!” 

FireHog focused back on the three of them, fists clenched and spines raising once more. “If you’re going to keep stopping my fire, then I’ve got other ways to beat you!” 

They’d all seen what happened to that Tenga. It wasn’t anything they wanted to risk happening to them, or to any of the civilians still in the area. Most of them had already cleared out, but there were a few peeking from behind cars and out of windows. 

“Don’t even think about it!” Rocky charged forward, firing as he did, doing what he could to keep FireHog’s attention on him. “You’re not going to get away with this!” 

FireHog laughed even more and a sharp-tipped spine blasted towards Rocky. Adam knocked the Blue Ranger down before it could hit him, the spike burying itself into one of the nearby buildings. 

At first Tanya thought nothing happened. Then gray spread out from where the spike dug in. It didn’t go very far, maybe twice the span of a hand, but it was enough for them to be certain that they didn’t want any more of this poison hitting anyone or anything around here. 

The three encircled FireHog, blasting when they could, striking when they had the chance, keeping FireHog’s attention all on them. FireHog didn’t have Tengas helping him this time, which made everything just a little bit easier. 

A little. Not nearly enough, as they all found out when FireHog let out his most intense flame yet, laying waste to three buildings and with small sparks landing all around them, ones that weren’t going out no matter what they tried. 

“Alpha! Think you can find something to stop that?” Adam wanted to know. “If he hits one of us, we’re a goner!” 

Fire and poison. What _else_ could go wrong in this fight? And when would it go wrong? 

* * *

Tommy wanted to get out of this place more with every moment. Sure, he’d made up his mind to break up with Kat and stop being a Ranger, but that wasn’t going to change the fact that he was a Ranger _now_ and that Rita was up to something. 

And since he was a Ranger, that meant it was part of his responsibility to put a stop to her. 

The problem on that level was that he had no idea of what she was doing or how he could stop her. Let alone how to get out of here and do it. 

He stared at the bars. He thought he’d hit all of them that could give any sort of memory. None of them did it twice, and he’d had enough of that really. 

Right now, for good or for ill, he thought he knew Kim better than he ever had before. Every memory he’d seen put him right inside of her thoughts, living them from the inside out. 

In fact, it was a little difficult to feel himself properly in his own skin when a memory ended. The differences between the way he thought and the way that Kim thought, let alone the way that their bodies felt, were so dramatic that he kind of was glad this happened here and not back at home. He wouldn’t have been surprised to find himself bumping into things, not quite remembering he needed to avoid them. 

He stared up, if only because he had little else to do. Watching anywhere else didn’t do much for him. Looking up like this didn’t either, but it gave him a vague sort of ceiling to stare at. 

For a moment he dropped his gaze to look at his red-tinged communicator. He still had the green and white ones from before, tucked into a drawer at home where he knew his parents weren’t going to find them. He could pass them off as watches if he really had to, but trying to explain why he’d bought new watches in different shades when the first one still worked perfectly well was a conversation that he didn’t want to have. 

_At least I’m not going to have to worry about that after I quit,_ he mused. That was yet another good point about this decision. No more trying to keep things from his parents. 

They’d never asked too much about things, really. He’d heard them talking once and they’d written his actions when they’d first moved to Angel Grove off as being adjusting because of said move. They weren’t really wrong. He hadn’t been happy about it. He just wouldn’t have acted that way without Rita’s influence. 

It was kind of amusing how people would write off things like that, make up the flimsiest of excuses for how Rita’s attacks affected the world. Sure, people knew what was going on. It was hard to doubt some of it. But at the same time… 

Something about all of that began to twitch, as if he were on the verge of realizing something. He’d felt the same way many times before when he was studying. 

_So what is it?_ He tried to examine the feeling. Doing that wasn’t his forte. He mostly preferred doing to thinking. Thinking was more in Billy or Adam’s line of work than his. So figuring this out… it would be better if they tried it. 

Only that led right back to one of his problems: he was trapped here and they weren’t able to help him out. It wasn’t even impossible that if he weren’t here, it wouldn’t be a problem in the first place. One never quite knew when it came to Rita and her magic. 

When it came right to it as well, he wasn’t sure if he even knew what his own thought on that _was_. He didn’t often confuse himself, but staying here like this was one of the things that could do it. 

He sighed and leaned his head back against the bars. He knew the others would be looking, but when? When would they even know that he and Kat were gone? It had already been past nightfall when Rita struck. They might not find out until tomorrow. 

Or was it already tomorrow? How long had he been unconscious? Adding to that, how long had he been in those memories? Did they take as long for him to see as it had been to happen? As vivid as they’d been, it _felt_ for some of them that five minutes reliving them and five normal minutes were about the same. 

Which then led to him wondering if his parents would even notice that he hadn’t managed to make it home that night. It wouldn’t be the first time. Some of Rita or Zedd’s plans ate up more time than he would have wanted. The same went for the Machine Empire. 

He still found himself more than a little annoyed at Prince Gasket for that whole thing with convincing him that he was the King of the Machine Empire. That had come out all right, and he vaguely enjoyed the memory of Kat’s arms around him… 

_No. It’s better this way._ He reminded himself of that quite sharply. He didn’t want to think too hard about the times he’d been close to anyone. It could start making him rethink everything and after _just_ coming to this decision, he didn’t want to have to do it all over again. 

* * *

Kat ran her fingers through the gray grass, noticing tiny little flowers there. They were almost the same color as the grass itself which was why she hadn’t noticed them right away. 

They didn’t have a scent, though. Nothing here had a scent. Only sight, only sound. And touch, of course. Kat amused herself for a few moments wondering if they had taste as well. She wasn’t going to try to find out. When it came to Rita and her evil dimensions, she wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that the flowers were poisonous, whether or not they had a taste. 

She touched one with the tip of her finger, a faint hint of curiosity tinging her thoughts. As far as looks went, the flower wasn’t that bad. Three petals unfolded from the center, which was full of thick pollen a few shades of gray darker than the petals and leaves themselves. 

_Why would there be flowers here?_ They didn’t seem like something Rita would put into a place. But Kat admitted to herself that she didn’t know a great deal about how these little dimensionettes worked. Rita might not have created it as so much as found it and claimed it for her own. 

Another glance at her communicator told her what she already knew: that she had no idea of how long it had been since she’d woken up here. That she had no idea of how long she’d been here before that. 

_And no idea of how long it’s going to be before I can get out of here._

If she knew anything about it, she would have done all she could to try to get in touch with the others. But she didn’t have any tools to work with as it was, so even if she did know what to do, she wasn’t sure if she could have done anything. 

For lack of virtually anything else to do, she picked one of the flowers and took a better look at it. The flower didn’t look much different up close, but she tucked it into a pocket anyway. She wasn’t one for souvenirs from places like this, but she wondered if it would look different on Earth. 

_I’m not all gray here, but it might not be gray there._ Just the tiniest bit of curiosity shimmered within her at that. She doubted it would accomplish much, but it might be nice to have a little memento of some kind. 

_And I wouldn’t have made up my mind about doing this if I hadn’t come here in the first place._

That couldn’t be in line with whatever Rita had planned, could it? It would be a lot more useful if she had any idea on what Rita’s plans actually were. But without that link, she couldn’t even guess with a hint of certainty. 

That made her decision all the stronger. She could have been of more use with a better, stronger idea of what their enemy had in mind. If she had it, she could have used it. 

She managed another sip of water. It wasn’t very much and it certainly didn’t help with the hunger pangs gripping at her. But at least she wasn’t thirsty. If she’d been hungry, thirsty, _and_ confused about all of this, it would have been far worse than two out of three. 

Her faith that the others would get her out of there hadn’t changed. But the longer that she stayed here, the more she had to wonder when it would happen and what was keeping them. Did Rita have something to do with it? 

That wouldn’t have surprised her. Rita was responsible for all of this in the first place. Kat might not have even made the friends that she had if it weren’t for Rita. 

The only thanks she would ever give for that would be to stop Rita’s world domination plans, of course. Even if that now meant finding someone else who would be able to do it. 

That hadn’t changed. That wasn’t any magic of Rita’s. Rita would want to control them, to strip their powers away for her own use if she couldn’t do that, or just to outright kill them. She wouldn’t want them to pass it on to other people. 

This was not Rita’s plan. Which now, Kat realized, meant that she didn’t know what Rita’s plan was, and that worried her. 

* * *

Billy kept checking. He didn’t have much else that he could do; Alpha and Zordon busied themselves searching for a way to either counteract FireHog’s poison or quench the flames he caused. His job was to either get in touch with Kat and Tommy to see how they were, or even better, get them back on Earth. 

At least it was late enough that their families would presume they’d come in quietly and gone to bed and not worry much about them. 

He hoped they wouldn’t, anyway. His own dad wouldn’t have stressed out that much, given the irregular hours he’d kept even before becoming a Power Ranger. 

He would never forget the look in his dad’s eyes when he’d confessed to the real reason for why he was moving away. He’d had to do with Zordon’s permission, of course, but he wasn’t going to move to another planet without informing his dad and making certain he packed everything that he wanted to keep for himself. 

Let alone without saying a proper good-bye to all of his friends. He still had to arrange that the way that he wanted to, but perhaps before he went back to Aquitar this time. 

He couldn’t help the mild curiosity about how they would all take it. Some of them would understand, without a doubt. At a minimum he needed a change of scenery, and there weren’t many things more drastic than moving to an entirely different planet. 

There were other reasons to, ones that he hadn’t even actually told everyone here about. He wasn’t sure if he ever would. Some things were just too personal to consider letting others know. 

A faint beep brought his full attention back to what was going on in front of him. He scanned the results with a growing sense of satisfaction. They would have to act quickly, but it could be successful. 

“Zordon, Alpha!” Billy straightened up to look at them. “I think I got through to where she’s keeping Tommy.” He still had to find a way to break into the Plains of Regret, but one step at a time. They’d had an advantage when it came to where Tommy was, after all. Billy couldn’t be certain of how many times he’d been trapped in one of those. 

At his words, Alpha started to trill in joy, but alarms shattered the more or less peace a few moments later. It was an alarm that Billy hadn’t heard more than once or twice in all of his years of being a Ranger, and now they all stared at the monitors in disbelief, watching stunned as FireHog threw another spine, this time directly at Adam. 

And this time it wasn’t a Tenga who got in the way sheerly by accident. 

This time it was Rocky, and it was very deliberate. 

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** I’ve planned to stab Rocky with that thorn since I invented the FireHog.


	5. Chapter 5

**Word Count:** 22,004/32,000|| **Chapters:** 5/8

* * *

Rita didn’t like being torn on how to feel. One emotion at a time was _so_ much easier to process, and far more satisfying as well. 

But here she was, torn between absolutely thrilled – the FireHog had taken down the Blue Ranger! - and on the verge of absolute annoyance – the _ex_ Blue Ranger drew far closer than he could imagine to finding his way into where she’d imprisoned Kat and Tommy. 

Granted, getting them out wasn’t going to heal Rocky instantly, but if they knew that the cure for FireHog’s venom existed at all in the Plains of Regret, then they could get it at the same time. So that meant something had to be done. 

Something drastic. Something that would seal all of their dooms. 

_Now if I just knew what that **was**._

She stared down at Earth, trying to work out what could be accomplished at this point. She needed to make a decision fast, before the barriers between dimensions bent and she had to put up with her captives being rescued. 

That was always the problem with any of her plans. So very little seemed to actually _stick_ in a way that could really make a difference. She’d created an evil Ranger. They’d converted him to _their_ side. Same with the clever spy she’d fashioned. Whenever anyone found a way to ruin or remove their powers, the Rangers just found new ones. The same with Zords. 

All this time and she hadn’t made any real progress. The fact that Zedd and the Machine Empire hadn’t either didn’t make it any better. They shouldn’t have _had_ to. She’d spied Earth first. It was hers to play with, even if she had to share her toys with someone else. 

_They’ll probably try to ‘fix’ Kat and Tommy once they get them back._

That did bother her, the longer she considered it. There wasn’t much that could change what she’d done to them. Every bit of it came from within them. It wasn’t as if it were a spell that could be broken. 

But they would try. They would _do things_. So what she needed to do, she decided, was something that would delay the Rangers from doing anything at all until it was too late. Until Kat and Tommy broke up with one another and quit being Rangers. 

After that, they would just have to deal with the results of what she’d done, and that would involve having new Rangers to break in. 

The worst part of this was that she couldn’t do the same to the other Rangers. But with monsters like FireHog, perhaps she wouldn’t have to. 

So, something that would distract the Rangers. Something better, different, than FireHog. There was too much chance of something going wrong with that. So what _could_ do it? 

This would be so much easier to decide on if she were at the Lunar Palace and had access to everything she’d stored there. In the first few weeks after she’d moved in there, she’d gone to a great deal of trouble to move all of her stored possessions there. She’d also sent word to Rito and her parents that she’d been released from her imprisonment. 

Her parents hadn’t even bothered to send an acknowledgment back, not until Master Vile showed up to try to run things for himself. She couldn’t even imagine why humans went to so much trouble to like their parents. Getting rid of hers was somewhere fourth or fifth on her to-do list. 

But even if she’d had everything, she wasn’t sure of what she had that could do anything. In point of fact, she’d accumulated enough possessions over the eons that she had no idea anymore of what all of it was. She took things, bought things, won things, people gave her things. 

Gave. 

Rita frowned deeper, a dozen thoughts flickering at once. Something about that seemed familiar, something she couldn’t quite put her mental finger on right away. 

_Someone gave me something that could be useful._ What could it be? 

What could seal the Rangers’ fates enough that this would bring her ultimate victory? 

What could bring this annoying streak of good luck that Zordon and his Rangers had to a crashing halt? 

What could just shatter them altogether, turn them into nothing more than broken memories? 

Something clicked. Rita whirled and stared at where Finster stood just out of reach, fidgeting as if worried she’d suddenly decide to turn him into mulch. 

Not a bad idea, but not one she was going to use right now. 

“Finster. The Dagger of Disaster. Did it get packed up?” 

It better have been. It would be exactly what she needed right now and if it didn’t make it, she was going to be _very_ upset about it. 

“I don’t know, my queen,” Finster replied, bobbing nervously. “But I can check for you! It shouldn’t take more than three or four weeks to find it!” 

Rita glared at him, eyes blazing in rage. “It better not take _three or four minutes_!” 

Finster squawked and hurried off into the Winnebago, noises of him searching around echoing outward. Rita kept staring at Earth, putting the pieces together of her idea. She needed to hit both Kat and Tommy with the dagger. Even better, she needed neither one of them to know that they’d been hit. So, she needed something else. 

There were moments when Rita considered not bothering to be evil anymore. It was just so _complicated_. And she always ended up with the worst headaches. 

* * *

Tanya and Adam lost not a second of time getting Rocky back to the Power Chamber. Adam tried very hard not to think about the blood seeping through Rocky’s uniform and getting on the both of them. It would wash off. 

What wouldn’t wash off was whatever it was FireHog’s poison was made of. 

He wanted to focus, to do something useful instead of standing there and screaming at the thought of losing Rocky. He couldn’t get his head wrapped around such a concept. He didn’t even want to try. 

As soon as they arrived, Alpha had a bed ready for Rocky, and both he and Billy started to check the Blue Ranger over. He’d demorphed almost as soon as they appeared there, and Adam couldn’t pull his eyes away from the wound. 

It didn’t look bad. A single hole, barely as big around as the end of a fingertip, with a streak of blood oozing outward. Just that and nothing else. It didn’t look as if it should have been deadly enough to put a life at risk. 

But that was exactly what was going on. 

“The poison reacts differently in Tengas compared to humans,” Alpha said as they tended to the injury. “They’ll be affected almost at once. There’s more time for humans, though.” 

“How much time?” Tanya wanted to know, her fingers tightening into fists. “Is there anything we _can_ do?” 

Alpha shook his head, but they all knew he meant it more as a shrug than saying anything else. “FireHog’s poison is very rare. I don’t think we’ve ever had a sample to research before.” 

“Can you do it now?” Adam asked. He would try anything at all to make sure Rocky made it through. 

Alpha bent over Rocky’s wounded shoulder for a few moments. “We might be able to. We’re going to try.” 

Adam breathed what he wanted to believe was a sigh of relief. He might have believed it better if Rocky had been able to say something at any point. But from the moment the spike struck him, he’d lain there motionless save for breathing, his eyes closed. 

Adam didn’t know enough about medicine to be sure, but he couldn’t quite believe this was anything but the worst disaster that he could think of. 

* * *

Finster tumbled out of the Winnebago, holding a box above his head. Underneath the dust that coated it, the box itself was finely carved and inlaid with costly metals that didn’t exist on Earth and probably would have been written off as junk. If Rita had ever been careless enough to let it out of her hands so it turned up on the planet in the first place. 

But now she snatched it from him and opened it carefully, cackling at the sight of the blade within. It was as long as her hand, double-edged, and each edge honed to unbelievable sharpness. 

“The Dagger of Disaster,” she breathed, keeping her fingers away from it. “They say that anyone who owns this cannot take it out of the box, because if they do, it will attract the worst sort of bad luck. The only way to break the curse is to have the dagger cut someone, drawing blood. Then the bad luck will attach to them.” 

Finster tilted his head. “So you’re going to use it on one of the Power Rangers?” 

“I’m going to use it on _two_ of them!” Rita snapped. She wanted to stab Zedd with it, all things considered. But that could come later. 

She closed her eyes for a moment, held out her free hand, and whispered a spell. When she opened her eyes, a glimmering rainbow-faceted crystal rested between her fingers. 

“Tell Zedd I’ll be back shortly,” was all she said before she vanished. 

She could easily get into her respective prison dimensions. They were _her_ dimensions, after all. The issue, if issue was what it could be called, was doing so without being detected. She didn’t care right now if Zedd knew she was going there, as long as he didn’t try to get in her way. 

But she absolutely didn’t want Zordon or anyone affiliated with him to guess at what her plans were. 

Thus, the crystal. When she arrived in the prison dimension, the first sight that met her eyes was Tommy, slumped down and eyes closed. She savored the look. If he’d had any idea of how close she was, or of how much of what he experienced was her doing, she didn’t doubt for a moment he’d be on his feet trying ten times as hard to get out of there. 

But he didn’t and he wasn’t and now she moved forward, the crystal shimmering faintly in her hands. The shimmer concealed her from all kinds of sight, from the ordinary look of someone’s eyes to the machines in the Power Chamber watching for exactly her kind of trouble. Whatever they saw, it wouldn’t be her, and it wouldn’t be anything that they could do about it. 

Getting close enough took a few moments. She had to be sure not to do anything that would get his attention. As much as she liked the idea of burying this up to the hilt in him and twisting it, she knew better. The Dagger of Disaster couldn’t kill mortals. 

It was one of the reasons she’d thrown it into her closet when she’d been given it. It hadn’t done her any good when she’d been living at home. She still wondered if it would do her any good now. 

But a chance was a chance, slim as it might be, and once she was in range, she slipped the knife from the box and bent over Tommy. The moment she did, she could feel the energy of the cursed blade moving around her. She didn’t have time to cast a warding spell, not that it would have worked if she had. The Dagger of Disaster cut through all such spells, whether someone wanted it to or not. 

She only took a moment. Just a quick little dart, enough to draw blood, on the back of his wrist. Tommy looked up, one hand moving to where she’d pricked, hints of curiosity flickering at that. 

Rita wasted no more time but teleported from there to the Plains of Regret. The curse would take time to activate, perhaps more so when it was split between two people, but if she lingered, then without a doubt, something would have gone wrong to reveal her. 

Even with the curse now passed to Tommy – she could feel the curse’s power having left her – she wasn’t going to take a chance as she approached Kat, still wrapped in the illusion provided by the crystal. Kat stood a far better chance of realizing she was there. 

_At least she does if she pays attention._ By all rights, Kat should be so wrapped up in her own personal regrets that she wouldn’t notice anything. Rita certainly hoped so. 

But as she moved closer, dagger out and ready to prick yet again, Kat raised her head, eyes a trifle warier than Rita liked, and sniffed the air. 

Whatever she smelled, she clearly didn’t like it, as she started to get to her feet, hand on her communicator, as if it would do her any good. In this place, not only would the communicator do nothing, but neither would her Zeonizers. The Plains of Regret allowed no power but Rita’s. 

_Maybe I should send all of them here!_ It wasn’t such a bad thought. The Rangers wouldn’t be able to get new powers while they were there, which would leave Rita, Zedd, and anyone else they wanted to invite free to grind Earth into powder beneath their heels. 

She would have to see if that really were a worthwhile option. 

“Is someone there?” Kat murmured, eyes shifting back and forth. “Who are you?” 

Rita longed to reveal herself, to see the terror in Kat’s face when she realized how easily Rita could get rid of her and how there wasn’t anything that anyone, least of all Kat herself, could do to stop her. 

She held herself back by the thinnest of margins. Not now. Not yet. 

Instead, she leaned forward and pricked the dagger on the side of Kat’s cheek. Kat’s hand flew up, just barely missing catching the blade there, spitting out a small word that wouldn’t ever pass as profanity in any language. 

Rita moved backwards and broke the invisibility. She couldn’t hold herself back another moment. 

“Rita!” Kat leaped back, trying to look ready to fight. The fear and confusion that warped through her, legacy of the dagger’s touch, didn’t do anything to help. “What are you doing here? What do you think you’re doing?” 

“Why, isn’t it obvious?” Rita laughed, waving the dagger threateningly. Just because she’d already done what she came here to do didn’t mean she couldn’t lie a little. Or a lot. “I’m making certain that you’re not going anywhere, kitty cat!” 

Her eyes flashed with raw wickedness as she raised the crystal again. “And even better, I’m making certain that you’re going to do what I tell you to do!” 

Kat glanced at the crystal and back to her. “Sorry. I’m not ever going to be your slave again.” 

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that!” Rita started to move the crystal forward, making sure it gathered what little light there was in this twilight land. “You’d be surprised at what you would do if it’s for those friends of yours!” 

Kat paled, taking another step back. “What are you talking about? Where are my friends? What did you do to them?” 

“Now what would be the fun if I just told you?” Rita taunted. She could very much get into deceiving like this! Just like with the regrets themselves, it wasn’t a spell that anyone could break. 

“You’d better not have hurt them!” 

Rita raised an eyebrow. “And what if I did? What can you really do to me? You can’t morph here and I can do whatever I want. You’re not getting out of here unless I say you can.” 

Kat shook her head. “You’re wrong! They’re going to get me out!” 

“Then why haven’t they?” Rita taunted. She knew the answer, of course. She wasn’t going to let Kat know it. “They have better things to do with their time than to try and rescue a poor stray kitty Kat who’s lost her way.” Rita cackled quite wickedly. 

Kat started to say something else; probably a demand for more information or her freedom again. Rita didn’t let her finish. 

“You might not want to work for me again, but it doesn’t matter. Soon enough I’ll get what I want and there’s nothing that you can do to stop it!” 

Rita waved the crystal again before teleporting away, reweaving the protections on both prison dimensions as she did. That wasn’t easy, but it at least would keep Billy from finding the way in there any time soon. Every little bit that she could do to delay them would help. 

That was, of course, the whole point of passing the bad luck curse onto Kat and Tommy both. There could be no worse luck for either of them than to be stuck in those prisons forever. 

Unless it was for one of their friends – or all of their friends – to fall to FireHog. Rita wondered if it were possible to pass the bad luck on without actually touching blade to body… 

Probably not, but what fun it would be to watch the Rangers fall apart regardless! 

* * *

Tommy rubbed the back of his hand and checked around again. If he hadn’t known better, he would have sworn that some kind of bug or something bit him. 

_It is bleeding a little._ It didn’t feel like a bug bite. It kind of reminded him of some of the injuries he would get in sparring practice if they used edged weapons. That didn’t happen often – using edged weapons or the injuries themselves – but it happened enough that he had a reasonably good idea of what they were like. 

It didn’t itch, not in the way that one of those small wounds would itch. It was more like the sense of something; as if it _should_ have itched and didn’t and he wasn’t sure of why. 

“Now I really wish I could get in touch with Alpha and Zordon,” he muttered, rubbing his hand again and again. The more he did so, the worst the not-quite-itching got. He wanted to know what was going on there and how close they were to getting him out of this place. 

**Are you really so sure that they’re going to?**

He knew that voice. He heard it in his dreams more than anything else. He tried not to listen, but it wasn’t easy to do so when the voice was your own. 

The only real difference between this one and his voice, if it was a difference at all, was that the one in his head sounded colder, darker, and far more cruel. 

It was the voice of the Evil Green Ranger. 

* * *

Kat stared at where Rita had been, tense, expecting the sorceress to return in a few heartbeats. Whatever her plans were, they couldn’t possibly be good, and Kat wasn’t sure what she could do to stop them if Rita wasn’t there. 

_Can you really do anything, though?_

That sent a shudder all through her. She tried not to remember what it had been like to be Rita’s evil Cat Monster that one time. Thankfully it was one of those memories that easily lent itself to being tucked out of sight. 

But now that voice rang clear in her mind, sharp as a dagger and cutting as deep. 

She absently rubbed the side of her face as she looked around. There had been some kind of a sting or a prick there just before Rita showed up. Kat wasn’t going to write off that Rita either knew something about it or had caused it in the first place. The problem lay in figuring out what it was and what to do about it. 

_You’re not that blonde, are you? She told you what was going on. No one’s coming to get you, kitty girl. They have other things to do._

Uncalled for, unwanted imagery rose up in her mind. Tanya, Adam, and Rocky hanging out together. Tommy being freed from wherever he was and joining them. 

Someone else joining them. Someone in pink. She couldn’t imagine much else about them; their hair never wanted to stay the same color or length, and their eyes shifted colors as well. But she knew who it was nevertheless: the new Pink Ranger. She could see the Zeonizers. 

It didn’t matter who they were. Kat knew what they were: her replacement. The person who could do what she couldn’t and save the world from Rita and Zedd. 

A light wash of sweat raced all over her. She tried to ignore it and failed as she slid back down to the ground. 

_That’s right,_ Cat Monster purred in her mind. _And it’s someone you picked yourself. Your own handpicked successor. Doing what you can’t and won’t do._

Kat shook her head. She couldn’t have said what it was she denied, only that it was wrong. She wanted a chance to do something else. To make it right again. 

_Oh, come on!_ A purring, mocking laugh that echoed in her head, ringing against the inside of her ears. _What could you do to make anything right that isn’t just leave? That’s what they all want. Oh, they might not **say** it. They might not even admit it to themselves. But it’s there in their heads and in yours, too. Isn’t it?_

Kat opened her mouth. She wanted to deny it; she could taste the words on her tongue. But before she said anything, she could also feel them dying there. 

What could she do when she couldn’t get out and couldn’t do anything to stop Rita? She’d been over this already and the answer hadn’t changed. If anything, she grew more certain of it. That was why she wanted to pick her successor and leave as soon as she could anyway. 

So why did it bother her just to see even an image, a fantasy, of that happening? Why did it claw at her and why did she want to claw back, to make it stop? 

It made no sense. 

Or rather, the sense it made hung just out of reach, and Kat didn’t know how to get to it. If she could wrap her head around it, then everything would make sense. Only the harder she tried, the more it slipped away, and the more the laughter in her head continued. 

* * *

Rita appeared back on the moon, thoroughly pleased with herself and everything she’d accomplished. She hadn’t taken more than three steps before Zedd stood in front of her. 

“And what have you been doing?” He demanded, staring down at her. Rita tried not to look startled, pushing his grill out of her way. 

“I was taking care of business!” 

Zedd looked as if he were about to say something else when he caught sight of what was in her hand. “Is that the Dagger of Disaster?” 

“You’ve heard of it?” Rita held it up, admiring how it glowed softly in the light of Earth. “Then you know about the curse, I presume?” 

“Of course I do!” Zedd almost spat the words at her. “What did you do with it?” 

“What do you think I did with it?” Rita snorted, closing the box and tossing it to Finster to put away again. Honestly, could he have asked a stupider question? 

She wasn’t sure if he could have, but Rito definitely could have. She wondered what it might have been. 

Zedd grounded his staff in the fine powder of the moon’s surface and gave her a glare fit to peel paint and shatter stone. “Give me a real answer, Rita. You’ve been running around without telling me anything and I want to know what’s on your mind!” 

Rita groaned. She couldn’t have the slightest bit of fun without him wanting to get all up in it and wreck everything. At least there wasn’t much he _could_ do to turn this upside down. 

“I passed it on to Kat and Tommy. They’re going to have some of the worst luck since the dawn of time, and it couldn’t have happened to two nicer traitors!” 

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** Three chapters to go.


End file.
